Blockchain-ul și NFT-urile schimbă industria editorială

Web3 a devenit cel mai mult sectorul de investiții căutat din 2022, ca cazuri de utilizare pentru jetoane nefungibile (NFT), Metaverse și alte aplicații blockchain se concretizează. Prin urmare, nu ar trebui să fie surprinzător faptul că diferite segmente ale industriei editoriale au început să folosească tehnologiile Web3 pentru a transforma modelele tradiționale. 

De exemplu, gigantul publicitar de manuale Pearson recent a anunțat planuri de utilizare a NFT-urilor pentru a urmări vânzările de manuale digitale pentru a capta veniturile pierdute pe piața secundară. Revista Time, care a fost fondată în urmă cu 99 de ani, a folosit și NFT-uri pentru a crea noi fluxuri de venituri, împreună cu un sentiment de comunitate în industria editorială. Keith Grossman, președintele Time, a declarat pentru Cointelegraph că revista demonstrează noile posibilități de implicare pe care Web3 le aduce în industria editorială. El a spus:

„Web3 își poate evolua brandul într-o lume în care indivizii trec de la chiriași online la proprietari online, iar confidențialitatea începe să se mute de la platforme la individ.”

Web3 permite o comunitate de proprietari de conținut

While it may seem non-traditional for one of the oldest and most renowned magazine publishers in the industry to host an NFT gallery, Grossman explained that Time has dropped nearly 30,000 NFTs to date. He added that these have been collected by over 15,000 wallet addresses, 7,000 of which are connected to Time.com to remove the paywall without having to provide personal information. “Along the way, the TIMEPiece community has grown to over 50,000 individuals,” Grossman pointed out.

Pentru a pune acest lucru în perspectivă, Grossman a explicat că în septembrie 2021, Time a lansat o inițiativă a comunității Web3 cunoscut sub numele de TIMEPieces. Acest proiect este un spațiu de galerie digitală găzduit pe Piața NFT OpenSea, which has brought together 89 artists, photographers and even musicians. “The number of TIMEPiece artists has grown from 38 to 89. It includes the likes of Drift, Cath Simard, Diana Sinclair, Micah Johnson, Justin Aversano, FVCKRENDER, Victor Mosquera and Baeige, to name a few,” Grossman said. 

While notable, the more important aspect of this growth lies within the distinction of “audiences” versus “communities.” According to Grossman, very few people in the publishing sector distinguish between these two groups, yet he noted that Web3 provides a “tremendous opportunity for those willing to explore this oversight.” For instance, Grossman explained that an audience simply engages with content for a moment. However, he pointed out that a community aligns around shared values and is provided with the opportunity for constant engagement. He said:

„Comunitățile” sănătoase au șanțuri, ceea ce le face mai greu de perturbat sau de ocolit. Cu toate acestea, ei necesită multă muncă pentru a se dezvolta și hrăni. Beneficiul pe termen lung al unei comunități este stabilitatea – iar publicarea este orice altceva decât stabilă.”

Într-adevăr, NFT-urile pot fi cheie pentru a oferi lumii editoriale stabilitatea și interacțiunea cu publicul de care are nevoie pentru a avansa. După cum a raportat anterior Cointelegraph, mărcile folosesc NFT-urile în mai multe moduri pentru a interacționa mai bine cu clienții peste orar. 

Other sectors of the publishing industry are starting to employ NFTs for this very reason. For example, Royal Joh. Enschedé, a 300-year-old Dutch printing company, is entering the Web3 space by providing its clients with an NFT platform for “crypto stamps.” Gelmer Leibbrandt, CEO of Royal Joh. Enschedé, told Cointelegraph that the postage stamp and philately world is very traditional, noting that nonfungible tokens will allow for expansion. He said:

“The crypto stamp opens up a global market that will appeal not only to the classic stamp collectors, but also to collectors in their teens, twenties and thirties who buy, save and trade NFTs. This is naturally very appealing for our main customers — over 60 national postal organizations world-wide.”

According to Leibbrandt, Royal Joh. Enschedé started thinking about ways to use blockchain technology over two years ago, yet the Dutch printing firm decided to start with crypto stamps due to the utility and market fit. Leibbrandt explained that not only will stamp collectors be able to own a unique NFT, but the nonfungible tokens will also serve as “digital twins” intended to provide an strat suplimentar de securitate și autentificare la produsele sale fizice.

Leibbrandt also pointed out that linking physical objects with their digital counterparts offers customers additional features. While he noted that crypto stamps are just the beginning of Royal Joh. Enschedé’s Web3 journey, he explained that the company has started developing “notables,” which are meant to rival secure printed banknotes. He explained:

„Prin utilizarea unor tehnici speciale de imprimare, putem adăuga, printre altele, realitatea augmentată, care la rândul său oferă acces la promoții speciale online și o platformă de comunicare. Notabilii sunt unici și elementul NFT poate fi folosit ca obiect de colecție, împreună cu un mijloc de plată în Metaverse.” 

Like Time, crypto stamps and notables are enabling Royal Joh. Enschedé to build a community of collectors capable of engaging with the platform and each other. “All kinds of new applications can be linked to these, such as access to real life events like Formula 1 or Tomorrowland, where only a few notes give entitlement to VIP packages. We are building our business for the next 100 years.” Leibbrandt added. 

Furthermore, independent news organizations are starting to apply Web3 technologies to solve one of the biggest challenges facing the media industry today — “fake news.” For example, Bywire.news is a decentralized news platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and blockchain to identify false or misleading news content. Michael O’Sullivan, CEO of Bywire, told Cointelegraph that the platform has built and deployed a “trust or not” algorithm. “This can provide readers with an ‘at-a-glance’ reassurance that the content served on the Bywire.news platform is trustworthy, and those who produce it are indeed accountable,” he said.

O’Sullivan explained that Bywire’s AI technology is capable of “reading” an article in a matter of seconds before it goes live to determine the trustworthiness of the content. Once this has been established, the algorithm generates a recommendation, along with reasoning behind its determination. “The why is vital because it helps consumers become conscious of the motives and intentions of content producers,” O’Sullivan remarked.

Deși inovator, O'Sullivan a subliniat că orice organizație independentă de știri își poate agrega conținutul de știri la Bywire, expunându-l la zeci de mii de cititori pe lună. La fel ca alți editori care folosesc tehnologia Web3, O'Sullivan a remarcat că Bywire are o comunitate de cititori asociată cu platforma, menționând că acești indivizi sunt stimulați să citească conținutul. „Fiecare cititor primește un cont EOS gratuit și poate începe să câștige imediat recompense simbol, care pot fi folosite ulterior în supravegherea democratică a rețelei.”

Va promova Web3 industria editorială?

Deși Web3 are potențialul de a transforma industria editorială, permițând diferitelor sectoare să ajungă și să interacționeze cu noi audiențe, impactul rămâne discutabil. De exemplu, a fost notat că există încă o lipsă de claritate în rândul editorilor cu privire la modul în care blockchain-ul poate și ar trebui să fie utilizat.

Lars Seier Christensen, chairman of Concordium — the Swiss blockchain firm powering Royal Joh. Enschedé’s NFT platform — told Cointelegraph that nonfungible tokens currently mean nothing to most organizations. However, he believes that NFTs and other Web3 technologies will soon become the norm:

“Let’s take one step back from the acronym NFT because it can be confusing. What has been proven is that a blockchain can store immutable data — i.e the records are final and unbreakable, and this data is fully transparent to everyone by simple access to the chain search engine.”

Regarding consumers, Grossman also mentioned that individuals should not be using the word NFT, adding that they certainly do not need to know what blockchain platform is powering these applications. “They should be engaging with brands based on the experiences being provided,” he said. Grossman further remarked that the rise of computers sparked constant discussion around technology until Steve Jobs explained that the iPod could hold “1,000 songs in your pocket.” Grossman believes that a moment similar to this will happen for Web3, but it is yet to come:

“Most people’s perceptions of NFTs and blockchains are defined by the extremes — extreme good and extreme bad. The reality is that a NFT is just a token that verifies ownership on a blockchain and education is needed to provide companies and individuals with the many ways in which it can be used to provide value.”